South Korea's top health official said Sunday the nationwide free flu vaccination program will continue, saying no links have been found between vaccines and deaths among those who received those shots. In a press briefing, Health Minister Park Neunghoo reiterated the stance expressed earlier by other national health authorities on the issue. As of 1 p.m. Saturday, 48 people have died after receiving flu vaccines, with the majority of them in their 70s and 80s. Park said a team of experts on

Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee was one of South Korea’s most prominent patrons of sports and the arts. His scope of influence even extended to inter-Korean relations. 　  In the sports world, the Samsung tycoon is best remembered for two key positions he held -- owner of the professional baseball team the Samsung Lions and member of the International Olympic Committee from 1996 to 2017.  But his interest and investment in sports went well beyond that. Under his leadership, S

President Moon Jae-in will deliver a condolence message to the bereaved family of Samsung Group chief Lee Kun-hee, who died at age 78, the presidential office said Sunday. Moon's chief of staff, Noh Young-min, and Cheong Wa Dae's senior secretary for economic affairs, Lee Ho-seung, plan to pay respects in person to Lee at the funeral home at the Samsung Medical Center in southern Seoul, Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kang Min-seok said. Noh will deliver Moon's verbal message to Lee's surviving family

South Korea has decided to stick to its flu vaccination program, as no evidence emerged to link the reported deaths to poorly managed or faulty vaccines, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency’s committee on immunization practices said Saturday. The agency’s director Jung Eun-kyeong said in a briefing that the committee’s review of the reported deaths concluded the likelihood of there being a connection to the vaccines is “assessed to be very low.” &ldq

A highly pathogenic avian influenza (AI) case was reported in South Korea on Sunday, marking the first virulent bird flu case in the country in 32 months. The virulent avian influenza strain of H5N8 was discovered from a fecal sample collected from wild birds Wednesday in Cheonan, 92 kilometers south of Seoul, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. The discovery marked the first highly pathogenic AI case confirmed in the country since the H5N6 case, which is similar

South Korea conducted 5,467 tests Saturday and found 61 positive cases of the novel coronavirus disease, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency’s updates, bringing the cumulative number of cases to 22,198. The smaller case count is likely a reflection of fewer tests taking place on weekends, which lead to fewer cases being discovered. The number of tests carried out per day on Saturdays and Sundays in the last two weeks has averaged around 5,400. Among the newly c

A civic group held a memorial rally in Seoul on Saturday for a South Korean fisheries official shot to death by the North Korean military last month, with his son vowing to "fight until the end" to regain his honor. The group consisting of people in their 20s and 30s led the rally, as the family of the ill-fated official strongly protested the Coast Guard's interim conclusion that he sought to defect to the North after losing money in gambling. Lee Rae-jin, the elder brother of the

South Korea's health authorities said Saturday they will continue a free flu shots program despite dozens of recent deaths after vaccinations, as they found no links between vaccines and fatalities. The number of deaths following flu shots jumped to 48 as of 1 p.m., up from 36 the previous day, after the first suspected death was reported on Oct. 16, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). About 80 percent of the dead were in their 70s and 80s.  "We a

  South Korea's new coronavirus cases returned to below 100 on Saturday after triple-digit infections were reported for the past two days, as sporadic cluster infections continued at senior care hospitals and other risk-prone facilities. The country added 77 more COVID-19 cases, including 66 domestic infections, raising the total caseload to 25,775, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). New virus cases exceeded 100 for the past two days. Daily new cases came

A Seoul court on Friday sentenced a man to two years in prison on charges of stalking a top female Go player. The 48-year-old suspect is accused of stalking Cho Hye-yeon, 35, for a year until last April and leaving messages and profanity on the outer wall of her academy teaching Go, called "baduk" in Korean. "The nature of the suspect's crime is very bad to the extent that the victim hired a private bodyguard due to trauma and anxiety that she wasn't being properly protected und

The family of the South Korean official killed by North Korean soldiers in North Korean waters continued to accuse the government of “dishonoring” the deceased man by saying he defected to the North due to financial difficulties. The Coast Guard said Thursday that the official, whose job was guiding fishing boats near the inter-Korean maritime border, had been heavily involved in online gambling and had wired gambling money shortly before he went missing. The bereaved family’

The government is providing 50.9 billion won ($44.9 million) to six cities and provinces that sustained damages from back-to-back typhoons in September. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced Friday that the government will provide 22.3 billion won to Gangwon Province, 19.8 billion won to North Gyeongsang Province and 4.7 billion won to South Gyeongsang Province as special budgetary support. The government will also provide Ulsan with 2.1 billion won, Jeju Island with 1.2 billion wo

Authorities are on alert after another wild boar was found with a dangerous virus in Gangwon Province. Provincial authorities announced Friday that a wild boar found dead outside its African swine fever control area in Hwacheon, Gangwon Province, tested positive for the disease that’s especially deadly for animals. Eight pig farms contain 18,120 pigs in a 10-kilometer radius of where the dead boar was found. One of the farms is just 600 meters from where the carcass was found, they said.

A man has been sentenced to a 10-month prison term for assaulting a bus driver who had demanded the passenger wear a mask, as well as a police officer dispatched to the scene, a Seoul court said Friday. The Seoul Northern District Court handed down the imprisonment ruling on the 61-year-old man, whose identity was withheld, on the account of assaulting a person behind the wheel. Aboard a bus in central Seoul on Aug. 14, the man shouted at the bus driver and cursed at other passengers after th

Concerns over seasonal flu shots grew further on Friday as deaths after vaccinations swelled to over 30, with health experts split over whether to go ahead with a state-led free shot program amid a potential "twindemic" of the new coronavirus and the flu. Although no connection has been confirmed between the recent fatalities and vaccines, public fears have been mounting in South Korea over flu shots. Since the first suspected death from a flu shot was reported last Friday, 36 have d